Open Cities

Large wall mural spanning the entire height of a four-story white washed building of a young girl on her tiptoes holding a watering can up high and pouring it downwards towards a living tree that is growing along side the building, reaching up two-stories high.

The Open Cities flagship project aims to contribute to making cities more open and equal places around the world. The questions we ask are:

  • How can a city become (more) or remain open for various socio-cultural groups and non-human life?
  • How do we shape open cities in response to global urban challenges ranging from massive inequality to devastating climate change?
  • How can we imagine possibilities for such an Open City and how can we work towards their realization?
People on the street with a bright sunlightbeam popping in.
photo: iStock.com/Marco_Piunti

On the level of the city, we encounter intersection of various socio-economic, ecological and spatial challenges. To engage with the complexity of this intersection, we recognize an urgency and also possibilities for bringing together research, teaching and also experimentation to develop productive proposals. For this, we need interdisciplinary, inter-professional and international collaborations. The project pursues research-led education to produce future global professionals who can contribute to making open cities.

Open City Network

This flagship project is part of the Open City Network. This network aims to facilitate and inspire interdisciplinary, inter-professional, and international collaborations between scholars, students, cultural practitioners, policy makers, and civic communities. Collaborators are invited to critically reflect on, and designing proposals for, how cities and their institutions transform in response to various local and global developments that bring about challenges as well as opportunities for institutional and societal change in the Global South and the Global North.

Meet our team:

Project leaders

Team members